Naruto: Cautious Ninja

"Seriously?" the surprised red head asked while looking for a head band or insignia. Finding none, she frowned. "Bullshit. You don't fight like a damn nose-wiping school kid." He fought more like a monkey more than anything else, but that was a point of view she was willing to withhold for the time being as he did technically save her life.

She was also too confused and bewildered to be spouting those kinds of nonsense observations anyway.

Frowning a bit, Naruto dropped from the pipe and stepped up to the girl. Tayuya backed down a little in response to his actions but remained where her feet were planted when the blonde's nose came close to brushing against hers. The proximity actually brought a bit of coloring and warmth to her cheeks, yet she maintained her expression of confusion and stared back as her savior inspected her up close.

"Why do you swear like that?" Naruto asked, tilting his head. "Did I do something wrong?"

Hearing his question, Tayuya furrowed her brow. "No. But you did do something really stupid." She stepped away from him with red in her face and gave him a hard glare. "What kind of crazy, brain-dead fool are you? Taking on those thugs on your own… you could have been killed."

"Bah! No one can kill me!" Naruto laughed while thumping his chest with his fist. "People have tried and people have failed. With my skills I can take on entire armies using only my left and right, no matter how many there are, no matter what kind of jutsu they use or how much power they have. I'm just that awesome!"

Tayuya shoved him in the chest. "Don't screw with me! You're not from this village. You don't know me. I'm pretty sure you don't know a single person in this whole damn country! Kids like you don't do crap like jump in to save some homeless kid getting picked on and mugged by a group of killers! Why the hell did you save me?!"

Naruto went from confused to hurt when he felt all the girl's anger and frustration directed solely towards him, and lowered his hands to his sides in surprise. Suddenly, all energy and cheerfulness he had previously been conveying just dropped like a stone plummeting from a great height. It all happened so quickly.

He didn't expect for the girl to just bark at him like that. All he wanted to do was cheer her up. The fact that she was also tearing up from the ordeal she'd just endured also had his mood sink with hers, and he backed up a little to give her some space.

Unable to think of anything else, Naruto responded to the girl's harsh questions with the most straightforward answer he could come up with. At least he had the right sense in mind to know when to take things seriously.

"You were crying…" He saw Tayuya visibly recoil at his reply, her tongue catching in her mouth when she watched him rub the back of his head anxiously. "You were being bullied and hurt by those men. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I wanted to help you."

Tayuya felt a lump get stuck in her throat, which she tried to swallow. "But… w-why?"

"I don't… really have a good reason other than that…" the blonde said while scratching his cheek. "Besides, since when did you need a reason to help somebody in trouble? I don't need one. Maybe I helped you out because I understand what it's like to be alone, to be picked on and to have to fight to survive. I never want that to happen to me again, and I certainly don't want to see it happening to other people. It really sucks, you know…"

Feeling a bit ashamed at her previous outbursts, Tayuya mentally backed at his words before quietly glancing down at her feet. Upon thinking on her words more carefully, the redhead quickly realized that what she said to him and how she said it was a really terrible way to thank somebody for a favor. The boy standing in front of her had only helped her with the best of intentions and was now appearing rather hurt from how she responded to him.

The musician bit her lip and looked up once again, where she saw the blonde rubbing his arm like he'd just been whipped.

"I… I'm sorry," Tayuya murmured, drawing his attention back to her. "I didn't mean to snap… it's just…" She heaved a sigh and shook her head. "It's been hard for me these past few months. I haven't eaten or slept in a warm bed in ages." Hugging herself, Tayuya ran her hands up and down her arms to show how dreadful she was feeling. It was an expression that did not go unnoticed. "Th-Thank you…"

Naruto gave her a look of momentary surprise before a grin flashed across his face, followed shortly by a laugh and a nod. "You're most welcome, Tayuya-chan."

The redhead subtly bristled at his affectionate suffix and blushed, "Hey! Don't call me that! What the hell's wrong with you?"

"What? Call you what, Tayuya-chan?"

"That! Blargh. What the fuck's with the chan shit? Don't call me that you weirdo…"

"Aww… but it's cute."

Tayuya blushed even more brightly and slammed her foot into the ground. "NO! IT'S NOT!"

Before she could formulate a more reliable comeback, the air was suddenly filled with the sound of a low growl that interrupted both party members from their exchange and prompted the red-haired musician to grab a hold of her stomach. The noise brought further embarrassment to the already distressed Tayuya, who then did everything in her power to keep her gaze from meeting her savior's.

Naruto smiled up at her. "Hungry?"

Tayuya nodded meekly.

"Me too. Come on, I'll get you something."

After fighting and beating the shit out of over fifty gangsters on the streets with his bare hands; hell yeah was he hungry. Still, he being famished didn't rid him of the spring in his step or the smile on his face as he escorted a now timorous looking Tayuya by the hand out of the alleyway.

.

.

.

.

.

🎉The novel is available in PDF with more than 500 chapters, visit us in our Ko-Fi store🎉

🎉ko-fi.com/shihao123🎉